Asia Capital Markets Report 2025

Asia represents 31% of global GDP and plays a major role in public equity markets, especially for growth companies. However, other areas of its capital market ecosystem remain underdeveloped.

Private equity financing is growing, but activity is concentrated in a few markets. While the region plays a major role in global corporate and sustainable bond markets, syndicated loan markets remain underdeveloped. There is also room for domestic institutional investors to play a greater role. 

Despite the growing role of market-based financing in the region, corporate financing in half of the Asian countries analysed remains predominantly bank based, with a higher share of credit relative to GDP compared to the global figure. The vast majority of non-financial companies’ debt financing in Asia is bank loans rather than debt securities, which account for only 14% of total debt financing. The biggest concern lies with countries where neither credit- nor market-based financing has developed sufficiently to support economic growth and many businesses are likely to be financially constrained. 

Capital markets have the ability to finance innovation by mobilising large-scale funding from a broad and diverse investor base, making them particularly well-suited to support ambitious, innovation-driven ventures. They also provide the risk-willing capital necessary to develop emerging technologies. Asian economies with higher levels of market-based financing are more successful at innovating.